Unboxing : Lola Box August 2013 (Be Bold and Brave in Your Heart)

Hi gurls (and guys, but i doubt any guys who reads this blog would bother opening this entry since it's obviously beauty related)!

Yesterday i received my August Lola Box, which is going to be the only beauty box i receive this month since BTI's having a one month hiatus while i got too late to try out the new system of VT :(. I  remembered belatedly about VT, hurriedly went to their site and did actually choose the samples (from now on you get to choose the samples-and a few full sized items-for your own box! How awesome) and tried to pay using Paypal, too bad my (hunny's, really) account was acting up and i couldn't make the payment! Then i tried refreshing the page (to pay via bank transfer instead) but all of the nice choices already disappeared, meaning they are sold out already! (There was a warning when i first trying to order that those items were selling fast!)

Anyway, since it's my only beauty box this month, i had high hopes for this box... Here's what's inside my box :

Let's rewind a little bit and peel off the layers of the box one by one as usual!

It looked neat and safely packed, they even slapped the fragile sticker on it (my hunny even asked me whether i ordered some chinas (NOT the country) online. WTH. Chinas? MOI???) but still, a disaster occured inside! More about it later

The usual "Bread box" outer

My eyes kinda popped when i saw the box' color inside!

Bright red! So pretty and bold (100% suitable for their theme this month), definitely my favorite box from Lola Box so far!

Yep, like my title suggested, their theme this month's Be Bold and Brave in Your Heart. Indonesia's celebrating our national day (just three days ago, on the 17th) this month, that's why their theme's somewhat quite patriotic and the color scheme for the box' conditioned to reflect our red and white flag.

This time, i didn't peek into anyone else's unboxing entry, so i didn't know what's inside this month's box before i held it in my hand. Love to surprise myself, it's just that sometimes when there's an unboxing link in front of my eyes i couldn't resist to click it haha.

The list of items in this month's box

The white envelope contained some fliers

First glance impression : It looked quite okay but not as exciting as the box *LOL*

My first glance impression was right, i am okay with this box, not too disappointed or whatever (unlike my fellow beauty blogger, Sabrina, if you're reading this hello Sab! Hehe), but definitely am not jumping up and down with excitement.

This is a... i think it's a flier of Paula's Choice beauty workshop. I'd love to join this kind of stuffs in the future, sadly as usual this event's will be held in Jakarta so there's no way i could attend it

First item (because i am OCD as you know it and i happen to hold the list's card on my hand, i will be showing you the items from this box according to the order they are listed hahaha) :

Paula's Choice Earth Sourced Natural samples, i do love how now they mostly featured clear information on how to use most of the stuffs so we won't have to google (or worse, guess) how it's supposed to be used

Sachets samples of Earth Sourced Perfectly Natural Cleansing Gel, Purely Natural Refreshing Toner and Antioxidant-Enriched Natural Moisturizer

Paula's Choice's is a pretty new brand in Indonesia and they had been featured heavily in recent beauty boxes. I've heard good feedback on their products and that's good that they featured all the three-steps skin care products here, however i am lying if i say i am happy with it. Sachet samples never really rock my boat. So this is a so-so item(s) for me.

Maybelline New York Clear Smooth BB Silk with SPF 21 PA+++ (8gr/full sized)

I was actually quite happy to get this. I dunno if BB silk's supposed to mean it's a BB  cream in a form of powder (if that's the case then yay coz you know i am a BB cream kind of girl and am obsessed to try every single type of BB creams/the likes, and i do not have this item) or not because in the description they wrote "the most innovative powder foundation" so it could be a foundation instead. Either way i am happy to receive this.

If you remember the whole debacle about Maybelline (dunno why but this brand-which is actually my fave drugstore brand-seems to be so problematical whenever their items are featured in a beauty box!) lippies that's already 2 years old when BTI members received them in our July Gold Box, that made me wary so i quickly checked for expiration/manufacture date. 

Expiration date, not until more than another two years, which is great (coz i hoard things and they need to line up to get used) so i already put it back into its box with the rest of the items and forget about it until i suddenly remember something!

A  few days before, another fellow beauty blogger (i get to know a few of them personally thanks to Collection event last month and manage to keep in touch with some of them via BBM and commenting on each other's blog/FB) Katherin, told me Sabrina was't ecstatic with this month's Lola Box. Not only the only the Maybelline powder was the only full-sized product, but it arrived broken to her!

Yes, a hoarder problem, when i buy/receive things, i snap pictures for blogging purposes but hardly ever checked or pull the actual item out of the box *unless it's lipstick or something, i'd want to check the color that i got, but even lipsticks if they were sealed i wouldn't disturb it since i am not going to start using it straight away*, but since i remember Sabrina's powder, i quickly went and open mine.

As soon as i saw the case, my heart sank. Can you see how it's got powder smearing the case already? I knew straight away that it's broken as well.

Or more like smashed into pieces haha. WTH. I quickly contacted Sabrina and whined about it haha. Also twitted Lola Box, hoping for a super speedy response like last time. Yep, it's getting ridiculous because this is the second time something like this happened, within three months! I received June Lola Box with Skin Aqua spilt all over the box until most of them were finished! 

Last time the second i twitted them they replied and e-mailed me telling me they're sending a new set right away (and they arrived safely within a few days). No such luck this time, i had to wait more than half a day to get any response from them but at least they did (and told me they're sending a new one soon) much faster than VT. 

Yep, i also received a less than perfect product from VT on their July box, a Ristra lipstick that i received was disfigured because the cap fell off inside the box on the way to me. I had to wait for days until VT responded my protest but they also sent me a new (with a different color!) lipstick, so i was secretly happy because i got two new lippies (thank God they didn't send the same shade, teehee) p. 

Hope to receive the replacement soon and i really hope Lola Box would be much more careful in the future. Both times this happens, the condition of the broken items were quite bad. And it didn't only happen to Sabrina and i, i saw some girls also twitted the same thing! Anyone else got the same problem?

Let's move on then..

L'Oreal Paris Youth Code Pre-Essence (1 sachet)

You know how i feel about most skin care samples *neutral, on the verge of not caring haha*, i don't own many serum, essence (or pre-essence, whatever that is)-actually none at all if it's full sized (only got some samples from these beauty boxes)-so this is a welcomed item in my stash.If only they were not a sachet sample it'd be great. One sachet sample should not be counted anyway.

Second item from L'Oreal :

L'Oreal Paris BaseMagique (5ml)

 Look how misleading the box was *LOL* :

Yep, the box made it looked like it's supposed to be much bigger than it actually was haha.

I am happier with this one! I only have one primer, Anna Sui one that my sis CW handed down to me, so this item is more than welcome! But i do need to use primer more frequently then *LOL*, i almost never use them-only when i'm attending parties, even then i tend to forget this step hahaha.

Yet another item from L'Oreal :

L'Oreal Paris White Perfect Laser Day Cream (5ml)

Anyone knows why they are called Maybelline New York but L'Oreal Paris? After all, they are owned by the same company. It just crossed my mind out of the blue as i am typing this hahaha. My brain works in a bizzare way.

Anyway, i had to redo this section three times because i thought this was the pre-essence, and then i thought i didn't get the pre-essence (it was a lone sachet inside a thin flier, i totally forgot about it) and then i snooped on someone else's blog to see if they receive the essence, that's when i realize that the essence was the lone sachet in the flier WTF.

Dunno how to describe how i feel about this item. Probably couldn't care less (because i don't even use moisturizing on my super oily skin during the day) is what  i should say.

Skin Junkie Soap Bar (100gr)

I already receive this in May VT and i haven't even touched it! Well, i'm not a fan of soap bars *i'm a shower gel kind of girl*, so they are most probably going to be used by hunny *i'll try them out a bit so i can make a review i think*. So... yeah... Another item that i don't really care about.

Clarins Shaping Facial Lift Lipo-drain Serum (5ml)

Errrr... read the pre-essence part up there again. Haha. Almost happy lah with this item, a welcome addition to my growing stash of sample serums. Now i just need to start using them hahaha. This one's for refining one's facial features so i will be trying this out soon. Currently wanting Bio-Essence's V shape cream because, well for obvious reason lah (my huge face) LOL. Let's see if the tiny serum will give even the tiniest difference.

The last items were the beauty editor's pick items they always featured in every box (mostly beauty related tools, but once it was a luggage tag when their theme was vacation) :

Mini hand mirror & hair brush

Again, dunno how i feel about this two. Sure, they are cute and pretty looking, but i definitely do not need them. The tiny brush is not something i'd use coz i don't really use brushes. I use a big-toothed comb (from Oriflame and i cannot live without it) after i wash my hair, and that's it. And i have way too many mirrors already and i only use one *Anna Sui inspired one i bring everywhere inside my to go makeup pouch together with its sister, the tiny fringe comb* anyway. 

Most definitely gonna give this away as part of a present. Next birthday i am going to make my own beauty box (i made two beauty pouches inspired by these boxes twice before haha read it here and here) and i'm going to feature these two hahaha.

And that's my August Lola Box. I finally peeked on other blogs and mostly they seemed to be disappointed with this month's box, i am not exactly disappointed but it's definitely quite meh haha. But personally i don't think this is their worst box, i didn't like the one with the Skin Aqua worse. Too bad my fave item in this box (the Maybelline powder) came broken. Look at the case! It's lilac and beautiful and it's a BB thingy! Can't wait for the replacement!

How about you? Did you like your August Lola Box or hate it?

If you're interested to sign up with Lola Box, please use my referral :

 http://www.lolabox.com/?refid=DVCjo4quJn

Thanks a bunch!

Concidentally, i wore this red and white outfit a few days ago (without even thinking when i put them on together) when i went shopping with my niece BB, and it's matching Lola Box' theme+suitable for our national day haha

#Pink

PS : Have you joined our mini giveaway? There are still a few days left, hurry and join it! Pretty please with us on top hehehe :D